An Empirical Investigation of Changes in Scale Economies for the Commercial Banking Firm, 1979-1986

Abstract

The period of the 1980s represents a particularly turbulent time for the banking industry. A number of technological and regulatory changes have occurred, including the elimination of Regulation Q which had limited the explicit interest payments that banks could pay on some types of deposits. It would be expected that these changes would affect the structure of costs for banks. The behavior of the cost function is studied over the 1979-1986 time period, and in contrast to previous studies using earlier data, increasing economies of scale are found in the later years for banks in both unit and branch banking states. These results indicate that there may be increased cost pressure for smaller banks to become larger, either through mergers and acquisitions or through internal growth. This may lead to further consolidation pressures within the industry, and reductions in the overall number of banking firms. Copyright 1991 by Ohio State University Press.